Scientist (Who Is a Creationist) Wins Prestigious Research Award

Dr. Andy McIntosh, professor of thermodynamic and combustion theory at the University of Leeds in England, has led a research team that investigated aspects of the Bombardier beetle, and he has won a prestigious award. So much for those secularists who continually claim that real scientists can’t be creationists.

Actually, Dr. McIntosh has spoken for AiG many times in the UK on creation, plus his own speaking engagements all over the world. Andy is also a dear personal friend.

Here is how the BBC reported on the award:

The deadly defence system of a tiny African beetle has inspired award-winning research into a new generation of technology.

The 2cm (0.8in) long Bombardier beetle defends itself with toxic steam which it can blast up to 20cm (8in).

A team of scientists from the University of Leeds have developed a technology which is based on the beetle's spray mechanism.

They say it may lead to improvements in the automotive and health industries.

The team's work has received the outstanding contribution to innovation and technology title at the Times Higher Education awards in London.

[This research] could inspire new types of nebulisers, needle-free injections, fire extinguishers and powerful fuel injection systems. . . .

The university's professor of thermodynamics and combustion theory, Andy McIntosh, who led the research team, said: "Nobody had studied the beetle from a physics and engineering perspective as we did, and we didn't appreciate how much we would learn from it."

I received this report from friends in the UK:

On Nov 25th Andy was amazed to win the Times Higher Educational 2010 Innovation and Technology award for work that has been done on the Bombardier Beetle Spray Technology -- quite a prestigious event with 1200 at a banquet at the Dorchester in London hosted by Michael Portillo. . . . There were 18 sections in the competition and some pretty stiff opposition in the Innovation section with 5 other Universities shortlisted, including a clever space debris collection project from the University of Surrey.

The BBC has covered the Times Higher Education awards at the website, and there is some more detail at the University of Leeds website.

The Times Higher also has a brief description.

Andy says, “I believe there is much more of nature's secrets that we could learn from our great Creator if we looked with an eye to see design . . . it was such an experimental and entrepreneurial spirit that led Wilbur and Orville Wright 107 years ago this month, to successfully copy the wing control of birds and so fly a warp wing controlled flying machine to fly along Kitty Hawk beach, in North Carolina . . . the distance covered was approximately the length of a Boeing 747!”

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken